We left Suwarrow on Monday, September 8 and after three days of sailing in 10 to 20 knot winds and two days of motoring in no wind we reached the Vava’u archipelago in the Kingdom of Tonga. Our port of entry was Neaifu where we were fortunate to piggyback on a superyacht’s request to have the officials come to the boat via dinghy to check in rather than tying up at the commercial wharf. After checking in we moved the boat to a Beluga Diving mooring which cost $10.00 Tongan or $5.00 US a night. After French Polynesia we expected Tonga to be a little bit cheaper for provisioning, restaurants, fees, etc. but Tonga has turned out to be the best bargain we can recall, even cheaper than Mexico! A draft beer in a bar is $1.50 US. An excellent lobster dinner is $18.00 US or you can buy fresh lobster from Gunther at the Dancing Rooster Restaurant for $5.00 US a pound and barbeque it yourself on the boat. Neiafu’s waterfront is sprinkled with great cruiser friendly bars/restaurants: We spent many an afternoon playing cards at The Mermaid. On Friday night Ana’s Café hosts a yacht race complete with fire dancing for entertainment. Coconet is the local internet café/laundry with reasonable speeds during non peak hours for $10.00 US/hr. You can even get connected to a wireless network from your boat.

The day after we arrived we headed into town to procure some fresh produce at the big covered open-air marketplace. Large supplies of papaya, pineapple, banana, watermelon, tomatoes, bell peppers, cucumbers, green beans, bok choy, yams, manioc, taro, and eggs are available and the prices were about half of what you would pay in the U.S. The produce is all organic and fresh, although the selection is somewhat limited and treating your purchases with Microdine or bleach to avoid parasites is a must. Not seeing any lettuce for sale that day we befriended a Tongan woman who encouraged us to visit her garden in the afternoon. After a bit of a treasure hunt we located her house and met her husband, an expatriate architect from down under who had moved here decades ago to become "responsible for 90% of all the structures you see here".

Numerous Tongan women are married to European men (Palangi). This is almost the only way to start a business or own a home as all the land in Tonga is legally owned by the king who leases it to the local royalty who then selectively leases it to the local Tongans. According to the locals we spoke to, this produces an inability for them to accumulate wealth as finding a buyer for their home or a business is more difficult. There is limited competition in business as there is limited foreign investment. On the other hand, the lack of capitalism has created a culture focused on family, religious worship, honesty and a general happiness albeit with very little worldly goods. There is little theft or violent crime and the people seemed genuinely happy living very modestly

The next day on Sunday, September 14 we attended a service at the Free Wesleyan Church. The singing was beautiful with complex harmonies and band accompaniment. The sermon was rather fire & brimstone, all in Tongan and went on a little too long. Around 200 years ago missionaries brought Christianity to Tonga and today its presence is so pervasive that on Sundays almost all businesses are closed, planes can’t land and any Tongan caught fishing or swimming is fined. In addition to worshiping on Sunday, many Tongans also attend an early morning mass twice a week. The church bells will ring for five minutes at five o’clock to wake them (and us) and then again at the start of mass.

On September 18 Katie’s sister, Karen and her husband, Dave arrived for a two week visit. We moved over to Port Maurelle on Friday and that afternoon took a dinghy ride to Swallows Cave for a snorkel. The Vava’u archipelago consists of 34 major islands, most no more than a couple hundred feet high, sprinkled with white sand beaches and underwater caves that make for spectacular scuba diving. The floor to Swallows Cave is about 50 feet deep making it accessible only by boat. In the late afternoon the sun shines in from the west lighting up the cave to expose stalactites and huge schools of fish. With water visibility of 100 feet plus this snorkel was one of the most beautiful things we have done. That night we celebrated Karen and Dave’s anniversary with an onboard dinner of fresh lobster and a fine bottle of champagne that had been given to us by some generous friends as a bon voyage present when we left the Bay Area 18 months ago.

A few days later we took another dinghy ride, this time to Mariners Cave. The GPS coordinates (18d41.450m S, 174d04.479m W) proved invaluable in locating the underwater opening. From the cliffs outside one sees only a dark hole beneath the surface of the water in the side of the limestone wall. Karen braved the entrance first to report that after an eight foot dive down, followed by a fifteen foot swim through a large opening one surfaces inside the cave. After a big breath of air the four of us took the plunge to surface inside the cave. Unlike Swallows Cave, Mariner’s Cave has no outside air opening so that every time the surge raises the water level inside the cave, it condenses the moisture in the air, creating fog with only a few feet of visibility in a matter of seconds. Then the water level drops and the air clears again, only to have the process repeated with the next ocean swell. There is a legend of a Tongan princess who was hidden in this cave for weeks. You can just imagine her sitting on a stalagmite as your ears pop with the change in pressure. If you can hold your breath long enough to swim under the keel of your boat from side to side this experience is not to be missed.

We easily kept Karen and Dave busy for two weeks exploring, snorkeling, beach combing and scuba diving. After a dozen snorkels and eight dives we came to the conclusion that to see the best underwater life, scuba diving with one of the local dive boats is the way to go. For $50 US, a dive boat will come and pick you up at your anchorage, take you to and guide you on two different dives and supply all the equipment you need, including wet suits. The best diving does not have a convenient place to anchor a dinghy, let alone a larger vessel so taking a dive boat is basically the only way to see the best coral and sea life. Each of our dives were different but overall we were treated to 100 feet plus of visibility, many different soft and hard coral formations, sea fans, underwater caves and tunnels, sharks, sea turtles and plenty of fish both reef and pelagic. One day between dives, our dive boat came across a humpback whale and her calf. We cut the engine about a hundred yards from the whales and drifted within 50 feet of them. Donning our snorkel gear, we jumped in the water and had an upfront view of these magnificent creatures. Much like an iceberg, most of a whale is visible only from underwater. An underwater view from 50 feet showed how large and unique looking these mammals are. Little wonder mariners are concerned about inadvertently running into one in the middle of a passage. For about five minutes the mother allowed us to take photos and observe her and the calf. Then, in a few seconds they were gone. There are commercial whale watching trips one can take out of Neiafu but if you are a diver we would recommend just signing up for a scuba trip as there is a decent chance you will get to see a whale while heading to the dive sites.

One Thursday the four of us participated in a traditional Tongan feast at anchorage #11 on Pangaimotu. For $17.00 US you get all you can eat roasted suckling pig, octopus, taro root, eel, kava, etc. served on plant leaves and eaten with your fingers. Before the meal about two dozen of the island’s children took turns performing traditional Tongan dances. The audience is expected to tip the children by tucking money in their dresses. The money then supposedly gets used for school bus fare or supplies. Again, despite the fact that these people are poor by western standards they are resourceful, hard working and have learned how to benefit from the relatively wealthy foreigners.

On September 30 Dave and Karen left and on October 1 our friends Dave and Diane Wyman arrived to keep Kurt out of trouble while Katie went to NYC and Washington DC for business. After some more provisioning and a Friday night Vava’u Yacht Club race on a friend’s boat Kurt and the Wymans headed back out to explore more islands. This was Dave’s third visit to Vava’u but his first into Mariner’s cave.

We spent six weeks in Tonga and wished we had even more time. We are considering coming back to Tonga when we head north from New Zealand. The scuba diving is first class and half of what we are used to paying elsewhere. For these of you interested in chartering, Tonga has both Moorings and Sunsail operating out of Neiafu and the islands are only minutes apart, making for frequent changes of scenery without any real passage time. Additionally, provisioning, alcohol and dining out are significantly cheaper than anything we have seen before. Overall, with fewer charter boats and cruisers than Mexico or the Caribbean and with a less developed local economy, a visit to Tonga really delivers a wonderfully unique experience.

After a seven day passage from Vava’u we arrived in Opua, New Zealand. We timed our departure as a high pressure system was about to leave Australia and had southeast winds 10 to 25 knots most of the way with only one frontal passage with a brief gust to 28 and rain. We mostly steered the rhumb line except for a day or so of lumpy breaking seas when we bore off a bit to mitigate pounding. We are now enjoying the wonderful Bay of Islands during the southern hemisphere summer. We will be checking email more frequently now that we are in civilization and would love to hear from you. Please write to us at svinterlude@mindspring.com)

Fair winds,

Kurt & Katie